S.Amdt. 5039

SA 5039. Mrs. ERNST (for herself and Mr. Grassley) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 4979 proposed by Mr.
McConnell (for Mr. Inhofe (for himself and Mrs. Boxer)) to the bill S.
2848, to provide for the conservation and development of water and
related resources, to authorize the Secretary of the Army to construct
various projects for improvements to rivers and harbors of the United
States, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table;
as follows:

At the end of title VI, add the following:

SEC. 60__. GAO STUDY ON CORPS OF ENGINEERS METHODOLOGY AND
PERFORMANCE METRICS.

(a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit
to the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the
Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
of the House of Representatives a study of the methodologies
and performance metrics used by the Corps of Engineers to
calculate benefit-cost ratios and evaluate construction
projects.
(b) Considerations.--The study under subsection (a) shall
address--
(1) whether and to what extent the current methodologies
and performance metrics place small and rural geographic
areas at a competitive disadvantage;
(2) whether the value of property for which damage would be
prevented as a result of a flood risk management project is
the best measurement for the primary input in benefit-cost
calculations for flood risk management projects;
(3) any recommendations for approaches to modify the
metrics used to improve benefit-cost ratio results for small
and rural geographic areas; and
(4) whether a reevaluation of existing approaches and the
primary criteria used to calculate the economic benefits of a
Corps of Engineers construction project could provide greater
construction project completion results for small and rural
geographic areas without putting a strain on the budget of
the Corps of Engineers.
______